Genes-n-Stuff

IN THE STUDIO: Yesterday afternoon, we started our three years of involvement with the Pacific Science Center's "Studio Visitor Project."

A couple months back PSC put a call out for applications for people willing to be a part of a long term study. Over 300 applications were received, and we were happy to learn we were among the 50 individuals or teams who were accepted. So, we'll be making regular visits to PSC and giving feedback about the rotating exhibits in the studio portion of their new Wellbody Academy exhibit.

Currently, the studio's exhibit is Next Generation Genetics. It features lots of interactive displays with a wealth of information about genetics. In the photo above, Annabelle tries her hand at gene sequencing. Many of the studio's displays feature images and video of local scientists and laboratories, which is cool. For example, we learned about Deborah Nickerson, professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington (there's even a lab on campus named after her!). Per her faculty page, Nickerson and her group are working to identify and type common sequence variations in the human genome, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms "in an effort to gain an understanding of the patterns of sequence variation in human genome and to improve approaches for association mapping of common human diseases." Fascinating stuff!

The kids enjoyed watching animations of gene replicating  and a great cartoon about the ENCODE project. It's called "The Story of You: ENCODE and the Human Genome," and it's worth a watch.

They also explored careers potentially related to genetics, and Annabelle got excited about the potential of being an epidemiologist, as it reminded her of a game we love to play, Pandemic.

After we toured the studio, we spent a few minutes giving feedback to a PSC staffer. I hope our insights and experience were helpful, and we're looking forward to our next visit.

ON THE WATERFRONT: Sunshine and lots of it - that's the very welcome forecast for Seattle this week.

We're taking advantage of it. Yesterday, we visited a tiny, Elliott Bay front beach in the early afternoon. We had the place to ourselves.

 Well, mostly to ourselves. There were some birds, including these creatures who would dive entirely underwater for nearly a minute, it seemed, presumably looking for food.

There were also some seagulls about. CJ made this one's day. ...

See its beak? That's CJ's apple core it's holding. When he was done with his snack, he asked what he should do with the core. I told him to toss it into the water, predicting something would be very happy to feed on it. About 15 minutes later, we spotted this seagull on the beach. He must have plucked it from the bay, lucky bird.

Though the sun shone brightly, it wasn't super warm. As you can see, we are still encircled by snow-capped peaks. The Olympics were to our west ... 
 and majestic Mt. Rainier was our lovely view to the south.

Definitely not a bad way to spend recess. :)

FUN & GAMES: In between Einstein lectures (we started in on the two postulates presented in his June 1905 paper today), the kids checked out some new-to-them games online.

From a Facebook post by BrainPOP, I learned about Monster School Bus, a fun addition game (with a thrashing rock soundtrack!). The addition problems were definitely below the kids' current level, but the monster-themed game was a blast.

BrainPOP's post noted the game was from the New Mexico State University Learning Games Lab, so of course I had to find out more about that. The lab's Web site reports its current projects include "innovative games and animations for science and math, a national initiative on active games, research activities with youth, interactive Web sites and creative video productions.

But Back to BrainPOP. While on the site, the kids also checked out other games. CJ loved Argument Wars, which is all about historic legal cases. He worked with it for hours, arguing cases, making objections and such. Very cool! (Argument Wars and many other related to social studies or civics can also be found on the wonderful iCivics Web site.)

Annabelle played Guts & Bolts . BrainPOP describes it as a means to "learn about the interplay of human body systems." Annabelle described it as "building a Frankensteiny-ish monster."  She also played Life Preservers, which involved, "Nothing big, just having to preserve all life on Earth," she reports.

SCIENCE FESTIVAL NEWS: I've been waiting for an announcement from the Seattle Science Festival regarding this year's line up - specifically, who would be appearing at their opening night festivities. Got my answer - and our tickets - today!

On June 6, we'll be attending "Beyond Infinity? The Search for Understanding at the Limits of Space and Time." It will feature presentations by leading physicists Brian Green (!), Sean Carroll and Adam Frank, and we'll get to see the West Coast premiere of Icarus at the Edge of Time, with music by Philip Glass. Should be spectacular!

HOPPING ROCKET: I know, I know, I've posted video about SpaceX's awesome Grasshopper rocket before, but could you ever have too much video of a rocket that launches and lands vertically? Emphatically, I say, "No!"

This new video is more spectacular than the last. It really is so revolutionary, in the same vein that the beloved and dearly departed Space Shuttles were a game changer, taking off like a rocket, landing back on Earth, and being recycled again and again.